CHANNEL ISLANDS : Tide Pool Being Renovated With Children in Mind

When water started leaking through cracks in the wall surrounding the tide pool at the Channel Islands National Park Visitor Center, officials decided that the popular attraction should undergo a complete renovation.

The tide pool, closed for remodeling since September, will not reopen until March, officials said.

But when the $40,000 project is completed, rangers are convinced that they will have a state-of-the-art display for the park’s wildlife.

Sea cucumbers, anemones, sea urchins, crabs, mollusks and plant life are native to the islands’ intertidal zones, all of which will be highlighted in the new tide pool, park spokeswoman Carol Spears said.

“When we realized we were going to remodel the whole tide pool, we decided to do it so it would be the best possible educational tool we could design,” Spears said.

Workers recently completed a retaining wall that will allow children to see directly into the exhibit from their low-level vantage point, Spears said.

The 2 1/2-foot-high concrete and glass wall was designed with children in mind because they are the most frequent park visitors, she said.

The design for the wildlife display will be final sometime this week, Spears said.

The visitor center and its elaborate tide pool draw almost four times as many visitors as the five Channel Islands, Spears said, with as many as 1,000 schoolchildren a week coming through on field trips.